


5 minutes inside the mind of Conrad Ecklie

by justtopostmyfic



Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Outsider, comi-tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:08:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25944871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justtopostmyfic/pseuds/justtopostmyfic
Summary: Ecklie realizes that the best thing he can do is walk away.He has no place in comforting Nick, but Grissom has that covered.Always did.[This story takes place 15 years ago, 3 months after Nick's live burial in Grave Danger.]For a man who is awkwardly introverted and inadequate with people, Gil sure has an expressive face. But that bastard is always a dichotomous enigma.That bastard tightens his arms around Nick defiantly, like he is daring Ecklie to intrude. In the waning desert light, Conrad can see his fingers flex on Nick's heaving back, increasing the embrace. Grissom: as protective as he is distant.
Relationships: Gil Grissom/Nick Stokes
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	5 minutes inside the mind of Conrad Ecklie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Macx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macx/gifts).



> Hello Macx, I love your Gil & Nick universe. They are so united and loving. I know you like Ecklie a lot, but this is normal Conrad here.

Some days, Conrad Ecklie, Assistant Director of the Las Vegas Crime Lab, the second busiest forensics lab in the nation, sneaks out the side door when he leaves work.

That is his biggest and most shameful professional secret.

Ecklie, who usually holds his head loftily while striding purposefully down the lab's hallowed hallways.

Because some days he doesn't want the overly chipper swing shift receptionist Sheila to crow "goodbye, Mr. Ecklie!" while handing him a stack of mail and message slips on his way out.

Some days, he doesn't want to walk past all the lab technicians who spot him from behind their glass labs. How they minutely stiffen, straighten their postures, and act more industrious as he glides past. He notices because he is a trained investigator too, lest everyone forget. It is tedious and performative, even to a man like Conrad who made his career on political theatrics.

Some days he just doesn't want to walk past Gil Grissom's office either. That is the one person who wouldn't actively look up and notice him, even if he did an Irish jig outside Gil's door. He is sure of it. What the damn hell was Grissom doing at work so early most days anyway? 

But in the last three months, he has seen a lot less of Gil coming into work early. Three months since Nick Stokes was kidnapped, buried alive, and almost killed by suffocation, or anaphylaxis, or by his own hand.

So today, even (probably) absent of the avoiding Gil Grissom reason, is a leave-via-the-side-door day. Conrad swings open the familiar heavy door, steps into the dry evening heat, and stops dead in his tracks.

A few feet from the exit is a nondescript picnic bench which is almost always vacant. But today Stokes is sitting slumped down on it, and Grissom is half-standing, half-crouching over and _hugging_ Nick to keep him upright.

Only Grissom sees him, because Nick has his back to the door. Nick's head is bowed tightly into Grissom's shoulder anyway.

Grissom's concerned eyes grow wide with alarm, then narrow with wariness as a muscle ticks in his cheek. All this in the three seconds that they hold eye contact.

For a man who is awkwardly introverted and inadequate with people, Gil sure has an expressive face. But that bastard is always a dichotomous enigma.

That bastard tightens his arms around Nick defiantly, like he is daring Ecklie to intrude. In the waning desert light, Conrad can see his fingers flex on Nick's heaving back, increasing the embrace. Grissom: as protective as he is distant.

Gil is still giving him the stink-eye with a raised eyebrow, even as Conrad develops a growing concern for Nick.

Is he sick? Does he need -

A choked sob tears itself from Nick's throat and then it finally clicks for Conrad. Takes him back to comforting his little girl Liesel from her nightmares, before she grew up and moved to live with her mother when she turned twelve.

Oh. _Oh._

Conrad averts his gaze to the ground, and slowly shuffles back into the building, letting the magnetic-hinged door shut silently behind him.

He will leave using the main entrance today. If he cannot give Nick and the night shift comfort or help, he can at least give them privacy.

Conrad retraces his steps back to his office.

  


_/That frantic night in May after they rescued Nick from the ground, Conrad went to the hospital because he is the face of the crime lab, because he felt some sense of obligation and personal compulsion to. He didn't stay long and Nick didn't see him though. Nick was lying battered on his side, with the bed raised partway. His hand, the one without the IV line, stretched out limply while Grissom held on to his forearm. Grissom's head was laying on the mattress, exhausted with half-lidded eyes like he was seeing nothing except for Nick's tortured face._

  


Right on cue, Hodges stands up straighter and cocks his head as he passes the Trace Lab.

  


_/Conrad heard later that Nick had a delayed reaction to the ant toxin and it flared up pretty badly after he was admitted to the hospital. Difficulty breathing, palpitations, panic, vomiting, the works. Heard how the toxin effects kicked in overtime after the adrenaline rush from the ambulance wore off. So that was why the night shift team posted Gil to stay with Nick that first night, Conrad had thought._

  


Archie squints and inches closer to his computer monitor. Bobby includes his other hand to arrange the clips of new bullets for ballistics comparisons. Conrad notices, barely, and can't help but sigh quietly in exasperation.

  


_/Nick returned to work two weeks and one day ago. The day before his first shift, Nick was in Conrad's office getting his signature on the paperwork. Slightly fidgety yet with a tense posture, quiet, fingernail half-moon marks on his forearms. Conrad dismissed them as scratches from the ant bites itching. He couldn't stand to think of them as any other aftereffect of Nick's hellish torture. Conrad was never good at empathizing about the psychological effects of cases on his CSIs, never mind when they were the victim._

  


Sheila hands him a thinnish stack. Two envelopes, three message slips, he notes as he takes a cursory glance. Not too bad. He manages a brief nod and a curt "thanks".

  


_/When Ecklie went to refresh his coffee a few moments after signing Stokes' paperwork, he saw Grissom and Nick walking together down another hallway, murmuring quietly. Grissom was almost touching Nick's elbow hesitantly, while Nick's eyes were fastened intently on Gil's face. It was a peaceful portrait, Nick looking much calmer than he did in Conrad's office._

  


At the time, he thought Gil was there to sign Nick's forms too. On hindsight now, Gil probably accompanied Nick into the lab that morning. 

As Conrad slides into his sedan, he realizes that Grissom and Nick's relationship isn't mentorly, or even fatherly. It is differently intimate. Intimately different.

As he turns on the ignition, Conrad decides that he can forget the last five minutes. He can do that much for Gil Grissom and Nick Stokes. It has no bearings on the lab, and isn't affecting the cases. For now. 

And then, and then Conrad will run interference when he has to until Nick gets better. He _has_ to get better.

**Author's Note:**

> CBS is planning to reboot CSI Las Vegas, to start airing in September 2021! Rumor is that only Grissom and Sara are returning (few episodes only), and the rest of the cast is new. William Petersen is pretty unforgettable.


End file.
